This paper investigates how quantity competition operates in economies in which a network describes the set of feasible trades. A general equilibrium model is presented in which prices and .ows of goods are endogenously determined. In such economies equilibrium dictates whether an individual...

This paper explores the extent to which the presence of ex-ante transaction costs may lead to failures of the Coase Theorem. In particular we identify and investigate the basic 'hold-up problem' which arises whenever the parties to a Coasian negotiation have to pay some ex-ante costs for the...

In the last few years, a new area has emerged in economic theory, which goes under the heading of 'incomplete contracting'. However, almost since its inception, the theory has been under attack for its lack of rigorous foundations. In this paper we evaluate some of the criticisms that have been...

We show how classic source-decomposition and subgroup-decomposition methods can be reconciled with regression methodology used in the recent literature. We also highlight some pitfalls that arise from uncritical use of the regression approach. The LIS database is used to compare the approaches...

We provide, for the class of relative bidimensional inequality indices, adecomposition of inequality into two univariate Atkinson-Kolm-Senindices and a third statistic which depends on the joint distribution ofresources

This paper studies poverty as a dynamic phenomenon, motivated by the recurringeconomic crises that affect developing countries and the incidence of income fluctuationson household welfare. While the increasing availability of household panel data has beenexploited in theoretical analysis and...

The early 1990s saw the rapid introduction of policies that were to reform the centrally planned economies in CEE and FSU. These policies were expected to lead to improvements in welfare. Studies on the transition projected initial falls in inequality and increases in poverty, which are...

We examine the sensitivity of estimates and inequality indices to extreme values, in the sense of their robustness properties and of their statistical performance. We establish that these measures are very sensitive to the properties of the income distribution. Estimation and inference can be...